Thanks to a reader for information about a break in the 1982 cold case sexual assault and murder of 16-year-old Kimberly Louiselle.
https://www.whmi.com/news/article/kimberly-louiselle-cold-case-murder
I agree with the reader that suspect Charles David Shaw (d. 1983 at age 26) should be looked at in the OCCK case, as well as the unsolved murder of Jane Allen and any other unsolved Oakland County homicide of young women that took place prior to November 27, 1983.
Earlier this year, the Livingston County MI Cold Case team announced that Shaw had sexually assaulted and murdered 19-year-old Christina Castiglione of Redford.
After 40 years, the LC Cold Case team sent a DNA sample to private lab Othram, Inc. Scientists there were able to produce leads using forensic-grade genome sequencing which led police to Shaw.
When a cold case is vigorously investigated, probable links to other cases can be established, as happened in these two homicides. In addition, the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office explained Shaw’s family members were essential in identifying him as the suspect in the Castiglione case. I assume the public will learn more about how the Louiselle case was solved (including whether an outside lab was used) when the MSP issues a press release in a day or two.
In these cases and those of Roxanne Wood (1987 case, MSP used lab Identifinders, Int.) and Cathy Swartz (1988 case, MSP and Three Rivers PD teamed up with Othram Inc.), presumably the DNA samples were obtained from semen samples that the police agencies adequately stored for many decades. In the OCCK case it appears that the killer(s)/rapist(s)/sexual assaulter(s) took great pains to avoid leaving semen. There was a partial Y-str DNA sample developed from the basically useless autopsy conducted by Robert Sillery, MD, on Kristine Mihelich. This is unidentified male DNA that is apparently not suitable for forensic genealogy.
I again consulted Dr. Michael Arntfield’s book How to Solve a Cold Case and Everything Else You Wanted to Know About Catching Killers (Collins, 2022) because of his observations about cold case teams and the pitfalls of overreliance on DNA testing to the exclusion of traditional investigative techniques. (See p. 36).
Cold case teams in the Louiselle, Castiglione, Wood, Swartz and Sharon Hammack (1996, Kent County, arrest in 2022 after DNA from semen and a rope used to bind the victim matched DNA from a similar crime in Maryland) cases, rose above the indolence, incompetence and insensitivity which infects many cold case investigations where there is no DNA to slam-dunk a resolution, (Id. at 34). Without a lab report to rely on, the MSP seemingly has no incentive to move on the OCCK cases. Yet they won’t spend any money on the new innovations in DNA testing to obtain a lab report. Circular reasoning at its finest.
The OCCK case involves four homicides. The cost is the MSP’s problem. They have had a ton of grant money (for which they never accounted) and taxpayer dollars over almost 50 years to play with. Instead, they push these four murders around the plate, the MSP maintaining exclusive access to the files and the evidence and any “forward motion” of the investigation. It is a warehouse for these four kids, whose lives mattered just as much as the women whose cases have been solved as described above.
Test or restest all of the evidence in the OCCK cases using Othram or a similar lab. Answer to the public and the family in the event no unknown DNA can be developed. In the Wood cold case, DNA “the size of a human cell” was discovered and utilized. Who’s to say, despite incredibly poor evidence storage in the OCCK case that a suspect did not leave behind DNA a third-party lab could identify? If you don’t get your ass off the bench, you have no business in the game. I say it again: L. Brooks Patterson and Richard Thompson could not have been happier to have these four Oakland County child murders in the vault at the MSP, where “no comment” is an art form.
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Good time to remind your viewers that there is zero in the Detroit media about the OCCK case. Last time there was anything, Jimmy Carter was in the White House.
So who “owns” the DNA and clothes? Could Wayne County push for testing of everything related to Tim? Or does MSP call all the shots? I assume Oakland County has no interest…
The MSP is the repository for all of the physical evidence in the four homicides. Tim’s clothing and skateboard are there. Evidence collected at autopsy started out there and has been sent to various labs (including Quantico, I think), but I don’t know if it has all been returned from the labs. The MSP calls the shots. Wayne County was instrumental early on in getting the MSP to dig up hairs that had been misfiled–literally misfiled and “missing.” But then Jessica Cooper waded into the mix–“we are not an investigating agency”–but they were a flame-throwing agency. Her little shop sure did investigate the Arch Sloan lead and then they made sure Wayne County was iced out. As of today, Oakland County might have interest, but the MSP and the state lab would have to step up.
The Homicide Victims’ Families Rights Act was enacted last summer in response to this very issue–who should have access to cold case files after years have elapsed without progress, especially in cases of mismanagement or neglect. See https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3359/text. But it applies only to federal cold cases. See https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-cornyn-cotton-bill-requiring-federal-agencies-to-bring-fresh-eyes-to-cold-cases-set-to-become-law. While the FBI has dabbled in the OCCK case, they run like hell if questioned about just WTF their role is or was. (Umm, the MSP and the OCS have jursidiction . . . we were just here to keep Jessica Cooper apprised of background information.)
This may be a stretch, but if the FBI is investigating someone, doesn’t that make it a Federal case? We know the FBI has info, is that enough to convince someone it falls under the statute you mentioned? I don’t know how it all works.
It’s not clear how it all works. Federal agencies are required to develop an application for initiating a review and had one year, until August 5, 2023, to promulgate regulations to ensure compliance with the law. The law speaks to a federal agency that “had investigated the murder of a victim.” The FBI certainly participated in investigating the Mihelich and King murders by working on identifying the bumper imprints at the scene where Kristine was left and by interviewing witness Doug Wilson in my brother’s case. Furthermore, they interviewed Chris Busch’s brother Charles Busch and obtained a DNA sample from him because Chris had been cremated very soon after his “suicide.”
The sticking point here, assuming I could get the FBI to acknowledge that they are subject to this law in my brother’s case, is that after an application is made, no further requests can be made for five years (unless there is newly discovered materially significant evidence). The determination is not subject to judicial review.
My impression is that the FBI would handle an application under this law as follows: We only participated at the request of the state agencies and do not and did not have primary jurisdiction such that we could require a case review nor expend our resources to reevaluate these state cases.
I have not yet found examples of how this law has been used. Federal agencies had until August 5 of this year to set in motion procedures to comply with the law.
In December 2021 the head of the Detroit office of the FBI was very quick to point out that they had no jurisdiction in this case–it was the MSP and the OCS and they defer to them. I pointed out that the FBI would most certainly have jurisdiction over a public corruption case involving this investigation. The guy was kind enough, but asked me to “put something together” (I already had; none of the participants on the conference call had read it and no one from their public corruption unit was on the call) and send it to the Oakland County office. I tried to calmly explain that the Oakland County office is part of the problem. I asked who would investigate public corruption here if I went to the U.S. attorney. Of course, it’s the FBI. I’d wind up back there anyway.
The theory and history behind this legislation is powerful and well-intentioned. But I just don’t know how it applies to cases like my brother’s or to the JonBenet Ramsey case, where local police or state agencies maintain control of the evidence and what, if anything, ever gets done. A state law based on this federal legislation would be great. I’m not holding my breath. Until I see some precedent in how this law is being used, no way am I giving the FBI the opportunity to send me a rejection letter complete with “don’t darken our door for another five years.”
I assume MSP. They investigate all murders inside MI prisons.
9-14-23: https://www.wilx.com/2023/09/14/michigan-state-police-close-1982-cold-case-homicide/